Forget Me Not
by cleverwordplay
Summary: Young love is almost never prepared for the real world. It's hard to withstand the tests that a young couple is put through. A broken love between two former sweethearts haunts them to this day. (rating may change in future chapters)
1. Chapter 1

They had written their names side by side in the sand at the beach, and it was so romantic at the time. They had sat by the shore, hand in hand, watching the sun set as the tide slowly washed away any trace that their names had ever been there. Perhaps it was some kind of cruel sign, the world trying to warn them that they were just a temporary thing. Some silly high school love, a couple years of their life that they would never get back, never forget, and never want to.

Maybe Yoshiko had forgotten. Maybe she had pushed it from her memory, refusing to acknowledge that it had happened. Maybe in her mind, she'd taken it all back when they'd split up. After all, it had been six years. Honestly, You had no idea. They hadn't talked in so long….

The reason they had decided to break up was because You was in college. Her first semester, they realized how hard it was to keep up a relationship with distance between them. They rarely got to spend time together because of how far You had to go and how busy she was with classes, and homework, and meeting new friends. And when they did spend time together, they just spent it fighting. Yoshiko had always been the jealous type, and You wasn't. She was a social butterfly, and it always led to some issues.

Maybe they just weren't ready to face the real world as a couple. That happens a lot for high school sweethearts. And who knew? Maybe Yoshiko /had/ forgotten. But You hadn't. You couldn't. Well, she didn't really know if she couldn't or if she wouldn't. She never really had gotten over it.

It still kept her up at night. When she was in college, it had distracted her from her classes, her mind wandering, wanting to call Yoshiko or go visit her, see how she was doing. She never did. She was too scared to be rejected. Eventually, she managed to at least get her focus back, so she could do her work in classes without an issue. And now, she almost never thought about it at work. It wasn't until her mind wasn't busy, when she was at ease and not thinking that the thoughts would occur to her.

" _What's Yoshiko thinking about right now?" "Does she still call herself Yohane?" "Has she found someone new?" "Does she miss me like I miss her?" "I wonder if she moved on." "Does she still talk to Hanamaru and Ruby?"_

Somehow, no matter how hard she tried, her thoughts always circled back around to Yoshiko. That was the big reason none of her relationships in the past six years had lasted very long. It would always be a couple dates, maybe it'd go a little further. Sleepovers and little kisses, but You always would lose interest. And she always felt awful about it, breaking up with girls because she was hung up on her ex, but she couldn't really help it.

You glanced over at the clock. 3:39 am. She sighed, rolling over onto her stomach and burying her face into her pillow. She shouldn't be awake right now. She had to work at 11. It had been hours of her lying there in the dark, in the silence, trying to fall asleep, but clearly, it hadn't worked. Giving up, at least for the moment, she blindly reached over to her night table and grabbed her phone, lifting her head and unlocking it. As expected, no notifications. No one was really up at nearly 4 am anyways. Why would they be? Chika and Riko had normal jobs that they had to get up for in the morning, and they were the only two people You talked to on a regular basis.

You needed to do something to get over Yoshiko. She couldn't just keep on going like this, dating without putting her heart into it, staying up all night, being miserable. She needed to kick into action and do something to move on. Where could she even begin? Deleting pictures off her phone hadn't worked. Getting rid of things that reminded her of Yoshiko hadn't worked. Maybe what she was lacking was closure. Somehow, perhaps she needed to get in a new way.

Picking up her phone again, she thought heavily about what to do. Should she look her up on social media? See what was going on in her life? No, that was kind of creepy. Maybe she should just… call her. It couldn't hurt, could it? What was the worst that could happen, Yoshiko could… not pick up? That wasn't so bad. Then again, it was 3:47 am, she probably was sleeping. If You was doing her math right, Yoshiko should have just graduated, and likely had a job now. She would probably have to be up early, so she wouldn't be up now.

Taking a deep breath, You went to her messages and typed in what she remembered to be Yoshiko's number. Sad that after six years, she still had it memorized. She paused. Why was this so hard? She was so nervous. Really though, what was the worst that could happen? Slowly, her fingers began to type an anxious message.

' _Hey, how are you?'_

Her fingers shaking, she pressed send, then immediately set her phone down and put her hands over her face. This was either going to help You get over her, or bring up old feelings and make everything worse. Maybe she should have talked to Chika and Riko about it first. They could've at least helped give her some pros and cons.

Filled to the very brim with anxiety, she put her phone back on her nightstand and rolled over. She really should get to sleep now. She would have to be up in about six hours to get ready for work.


	2. Chapter 2

Yoshiko awoke with a start to the sound of her alarm clock screeching like a banshee. She groaned, reaching over to turn it off, refusing to open her eyes quite yet. She was incredibly comfortable for someone who was hanging about 40% of the way off her bed. Her blankets were only covering one leg and half her butt, and her hair was hanging straight down to the floor.

After about five minutes of sitting there, she finally rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes, looking up at the ceiling. It was about 7 am, and she should probably get up and start getting ready for her day. She had never liked being up so early. It made her cranky.

She yawned and stretched her arms out, standing up and lazily trudging over to her mirror. She brushed through her hair and styled her hair easily into her routine style, then went back over to her bed to grab her phone. She yawned again as she unplugged it, swiping away useless notifications before one made her stop dead in her tracks.

An unsaved number. But an unsaved number she would recognize anywhere. 'Hey, how are you?' it asked. That was a question she didn't know how to answer, not to this number. You Watanabe. That was a name she had refused to think about for years. So many feelings were tied to that name.

The only one she felt right now was heartbreak.

Slowly, Yoshiko sat back down on her bed, staring at the floor. Her heart hurt with the rush of emotions flying back, the memories flooding her brain. She couldn't tell if her heart was in her throat or in her stomach. Whichever it was, it was beating like crazy. Whether out of fear or anger or sadness or something else, she didn't know.

She didn't know. That was the only response to the question. She had no idea how she was. Up until this morning, she'd been fine. Up until reading that text, she was doing great. She was focused on her career, moving forward with her life. She had no time for dating. Or, at least, that was the excuse she'd been using.

Now that she thought about it, the true reason she hadn't dated was because she wasn't over her last relationship. She hadn't thought about You in so long, she hadn't let herself. Because she knew that she would cry and her heart would break all over again and she would push aside her self control and call her, which she knew was a bad idea.

But was it? You had texted her. What did that mean? What was she trying to do here? What kind of game did she think that this was? She thought she could just pop in after six years of not talking to her and ask her how she was, as if it had been only a couple days? How cruel. How bold.

She picked up her phone again with a slight scowl on her face, typing in a response, her fingers moving quickly in her frustration.

' _That depends. What do you want?'_

She set her phone aside and sat up tall, smiling smugly. There. She had stood her ground. The Great Yohane would never fall victim to some foolish mortal's silly games. She knew better than that!

But… maybe she shouldn't have been so rude about it. You was a good person. She'd always been the nicest, most caring person Yoshiko had ever met, and maybe she really was just checking in. Honestly, she probably already felt badly enough about how things had worked out between them. Or rather, how things didn't work out. Sighing, she picked up her phone again and typed out another message.

' _Sorry. That was rude. I wanted to try to figure out why you're suddenly texting me, but it came out really nasty. I've been doing pretty okay since… y'know. How are you?'_

She added the question on the end just out of common courtesy. When someone asks how you are, you're supposed to ask back. But sending the message, Yoshiko realized she really did wonder how You was. She wondered if she was okay, if she'd gotten a good job. Was she dating someone new? Did she get a cool apartment? Probably not as cool as Yohane's, just saying. Had she coped well with the breakup? Knowing You, she likely handled it better than Yoshiko did. She'd lost her cool for a couple months, a fiery burning ball of anger and heartbreak. But You had always been so cool and easygoing, she probably had taken it much better.

Shaking her head suddenly, Yoshiko snapped out of her thoughts and stood back up, tossing her phone aside. She had to get ready for work, this weirdness and reminiscence would have to wait.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Six years before…**_

After driving for nearly an hour, You pulled into the parking lot of a familiar apartment building. She couldn't help but smile as she looked up at the window she knew to be her girlfriend's bedroom. It was easy to tell which hers was because the curtains were black, in comparison to all the whites and pinks of other people's windows. She pulled into a parking space and shut her car off, taking a moment to just sit in her car and think. Lately, whenever she and Yoshiko hung out, they'd just spent it arguing. You ended up crying nearly every time, and their fights often got so intense that one of them would just storm off. Usually Yoshiko. But You had gotten so frustrated a few times that she'd just gotten in her car and left. They always managed to make up, but it was so gruelling.

You sighed, closing her eyes and leaning her head back against her seat. She'd been doing a lot of wondering lately, and the wondering led her to some thoughts she felt really guilty about. Thoughts about breaking it off and just being alone. She didn't /want/ to break up with Yoshiko, not at all. She loved her so much, she wanted to spend every second with her, holding her hand, making jokes, just being together. You knew that if they tried, they could sort it all out. She was dedicated to keeping this relationship alive.

Slapping her cheeks gently, she sat back up and opened her eyes with newfound determination. She grabbed her keys and her little backpack and hopped out of the car, locking it behind her as she bounced up to the apartment building's door. By now, she knew the drill. She had to ring Yoshiko through the buzzer to be let in. Smiling, she pressed the button and heard a loud noise.

" _Hello?"_ said a familiar voice through the intercom.

You held down the button while she spoke in response. "Oh, Great Yohane, won't you let in your most faithful little demon?" She had to make sure Yoshiko couldn't tell she was grinning as she said it.

There was a pause, then she heard her voice again, a notch deeper than it was before. " _Enter, little demon."_ Immediately after, there came another loud buzzing noise.

Grinning and shaking her head, she pulled open the now unlocked front door and headed up to her girlfriend's apartment. When she got to the door, she knocked on it, and it opened almost immediately. Yoshiko stood there holding the door open without expression.

"Hey, my fallen angel, I've missed you," You said with the brightest grin anyone had ever seen, lifting her arms to give Yoshiko a hug.

The fallen angel had to keep her cool, feeling her heart nearly beating out of her chest at the sight of such a sunny, exuberant smile. She didn't step into the hug. "You haven't answered my calls in a week." She turned and walked off towards her bedroom, leaving the door open for You to follow her.

The older girl's arms dropped and her smile fell, realizing this meeting wasn't likely to be any better than the others. She sighed lightly and stepped into her apartment, sliding off her shoes and closing the door behind her before she followed her girlfriend to her bedroom. When she got there, Yoshiko was sitting on her bed and waiting for her.

"I know, I'm really sorry I haven't answered your calls, I've been really busy," she said, putting her bag down next to the door and stepping over to sit on the bed beside her. "I have a huge test coming up this week in my biology class and I don't want to fail it, so I've been studying like crazy. I'm sorry, can we not do this now? I just wanted to hang out with my beautiful girlfriend while I have some free time." She smiled and reached over, taking ahold of Yoshiko's hand.

For a second, Yohane almost wanted to just give in right then, give in to that beautiful smile and that sweet, loving voice, but the little voice on the inside wouldn't have it. Little Voice was angry at You and wanted her to pay for it. Little Voice had noticed more than the lack of phone calls, Little Voice had noticed that You had been spending significantly more time with Random Pretty Girl From College. She had been posting pictures of them together online, and in her mind, Yoshiko knew there was no way this wonderful creature would ever cheat on her. But deep inside, she was a jealous person and she wanted You all to herself, so she had to be sure nothing would happen. She pulled her hand away from You's and turned a little so she was facing the other way.

"If we don't talk about it now, it's just going to get put off to the next time, and you'll use the same excuse then too," she said, crossing her arms and huffing. "You don't answer my calls, but you have plenty of time to spend with that pretty brunette that's in all your pictures."

"Wha… Yoshiko, you don't really think there's anything going on between me and her, do you?" she questioned, looking hurt by the accusation and it hit the fallen angel like a stake to the heart.

"It's Yohane. And maybe I do, but how would I know that it isn't true? Especially when all the evidence points to you having the perfect situation to completely forget about me," she whined, pausing to clear her throat and sound more certain. "You're off in college and making all these pretty new friends. None of their beauty even comes close to matching the Great Yohane's, so I can't understand why you'd even talk to them at all." Yoshiko knew she was being ridiculous, but she really couldn't help it. She didn't like seeing her girlfriend with all these girls, especially knowing how wonderful You was and that everybody thought so. She had an amazing body and an infectious personality that stole everyone's heart. If someone were to take You away from her, she didn't know what she'd do.

You sighed through her nose, starting to sound annoyed with this conversation. She took a long time to think over her words before she spoke. That was something Yohane was never really good at.

"You can't be like this every time I try to make friends with someone," she said slowly, trying to be calm and keep her voice steady. Yoshiko could tell she was starting to really get annoyed with Yoshiko and her possessiveness. It made her heart sink into her stomach like a rock. "I am not going to be a complete loner and drop all my friendships just because you think I'm going to stop dating you for one of my friends. They're my _friends."_

"We were friends before we started dating, so the same thing could probably happen with them."

"But it's _different_ , Yoshiko!" You said, standing up and walking around the bed so she was standing right in front of her. Yoshiko just sat there as You put her hands on her shoulders and leaned down to meet her eyes. "I don't love them. I don't even like them. I love _you_ , and I want to be with _you_ , but you're being so difficult and so jealous and crazy, and I-I-I just…. It's just too much. I don't like fighting every time I see you."

Yohane narrowed her eyes. Difficult. Jealous. Crazy. She didn't like the sound of those word at all. She didn't like to be called that, and especially not in a situation where she felt like it was perfectly justified. After all, You was _always_ posting pictures with so many random girls, and Yohane never did. You never called her, and Yohane called her first thing in the morning and last thing at night, only to be sent to voicemail. Her texts were returned only about 50% of the time, and it was just so unfair to be treated that way.

Yoshiko stood up, face to face with her girlfriend. "Do you think that _I_ like fighting every time we see each other? I don't," she said, narrowing her eyes again and leaning forward a little. "But more than that, I hate being ignored. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it." She moved and walked right past you, to the other side of the room. "I call you, I text you, I send you pictures, I tell you I miss you and I love you, and you only respond once in a day, and it's a short, shitty little message about how you're busy but you 'totally had so much fun with your friends going skinny dipping or doing parkour in the park or competing against each other in….kissing challenges'," Yohane made a whiny little voice to mimic what she assumed You's new friends all sounded like. She could feel herself starting to go overboard, but this had been eating away at her for so long, it was hard to hold back.

"You know I would never cheat on you-"

"Do I? I can't tell anymore," she said, crossing her arms huffily.

Soon, the fighting had blown up to an all out screaming match, back and forth and back and forth. They'd moved through every room in the apartment and through each room, things only got worse. By the third room, You was crying. Probably from the distress and annoyance and frustration, not so much out of sadness. Yoshiko had tried not to say anything hurtful that she didn't mean. She had more self control than that. Yoshiko had never once cried during a fight, because she wanted to keep her composure so she could look tough. She never really had been one to cry when she was angry.

"It's just so stupid! I don't even want to go to things like that, they're dumb, and I hate them, and you're not the only one that has things to do, You, I'm busy too!" Yohane shouted, clenching her fists so she didn't do anything stupid, like break a lamp. Not only was she clumsy, but she had back luck, and when she was angry, it was an evil combination.

You said nothing for a long while, just standing there taking deep, shaky breaths and trying to steady her voice. Yoshiko hated to see her cry like this, but this fight…. They were too far gone now to go back.

"I think we should…" You started, her voice cracking as she choked up a little more. She took a breath and tried again. "I think maybe…. Yoshiko, I think we need to break up."

Right then and there, the whole world stopped. Yoshiko could feel everything pausing, nothing moved. Nobody breathed. Not a sound was made from the outdoors. Water stopped flowing, fire stopped burning. The world stopped turning. Just for a while. The whole world stopped just for Yoshiko, just so she could feel this moment with every part of her body, every single piece of emotion, every single molecule that made up her mind and body was there to feel her heart shatter into a billion broken little pieces. Her heart had been fragile glass to begin with. You's heart was the cushion she laid her own on to protect it, You's heart held hers in her strong arms and kept it safe from everything in the world. Right from that first moment You had protected her heart, You had been _her entire world_.

She took advantage of the world's considerate pause, and thought back on a moment two years ago. They had only been dating for a month, but it was an amazing month. It was a Saturday evening and they'd been at the beach for hours. Yoshiko had never really liked the beach all that much, but You loved to be there, by the ocean, and wherever You was happy, Yoshiko was happy to be there too. They had found a long stick with a pointy end, and with it, they wrote their names in the sand on the shore, surrounding it with a big heart. You had suggested finding little seashells to put in the heart, but they had only found a total of six. The six had looked nice, regardless. Even though Yoshiko didn't like the beach, she got to see the big smile on her girlfriend's face when the waves crashed in, got to feel her glass heart beating when they had laid down together in the sand to watch the sun set on the horizon. Yoshiko remembered, right as the sun disappeared for the night, and the sky was a deep, deep blue, You had whispered her name from right beside her, and when she turned her head to see what she wanted… You had kissed her for the very first time. And from that moment, she knew that that girl was all she wanted for the rest of her life.

That was her entire world.

And in the few seconds it had taken her world to whisper those few words, when the universe had stopped for the world to break a girl's glass heart, Yoshiko's world fell apart right in front of her. It was nearly enough to make her cry.

She bit down on her lip and took a slow, deep breath. She opened her mouth to speak, but she didn't know what to say.

She looked at the floor. "...Is that what you want?" she finally managed to mutter, in a very quiet voice, unable to look at You anymore.

She heard You sniffling, and heard her moving around. "No," she said, causing Yoshiko to glance up for a second. She looked… so sad. Yoshiko had to bite down on her lip harder to hold the tears back. "No, it's not what I want. I want _you_. But that's not what I need. I need us to break up. You need it too. It's not doing either of us any good for us to-"

"Fine," Yoshiko cut her off before she could go any further. She lifted her head, her expression as blank as it had been when You had first arrived. The only difference, You noticed, was that her eyes were harder. Narrowed, sharp. She was hurt, and You could tell. Immediately, the guilt set in and tears slid down her face even more. She wiped her face on her arm. "Fine. We'll break up. You can take your stuff from here back with you. I don't want it. And send me everything you have that's mine."

Fifteen minutes of pure silence passed and Yoshiko sat on the couch, staring out the window at the setting sun, and You moved around the apartment, gathering what was hers. In her mind, there were so many things she wanted to say. So many memories she wanted to keep, so many things she didn't want to lose. She didn't really think she had that option. You didn't want her anymore. Well, maybe that wasn't really true. You had said she wanted her. The thought of that didn't even hurt as much as the fact that You didn't _need_ her anymore. Yoshiko _needed_ You. Her world, her lifeline, her everything. She was all she had ever wanted in life, and she'd crumbled in front of her and ripped herself away. What was Yoshiko going to do now? She was going to have to be tough, and forget all about this. The only way she could survive a sudden death like this was to push it from her mind and refuse to acknowledge that it even ever happened.

Finally, You emerged from Yoshiko's bedroom, closing the door behind her and walking up behind Yoshiko quietly. She felt so guilty, looking at her staring silently out the window. She didn't want to leave her. She didn't want to leave this. She didn't want to lose what was probably the greatest thing to ever happen to her. But she didn't really have a choice at this point. Taking a deep breath, she leaned down and pressed one long, emotional, meaningful kiss to the top of Yoshiko's head. She didn't even blink, or react at all.

After a long moment of silence with You just standing behind her, finally Yoshiko stood. "I'll walk you to the door," she said quietly, walking slowly towards her front door and taking a second to get it open. "Have fun being single." She couldn't help it. She knew it was petty, and probably a cruel thing to say, but it had just come out. And she had sounded so bitter, too. She hadn't even had time to consider how horrible it was to say something like that.

You kept her eyes on the floor as she walked behind her, only looking up when Yoshiko opened the door and said something. Her blue eyes looked to Yoshiko's face, searching her expression. Slowly, she moved forward again and stepped out the door. Just as she was about to leave, she paused and turned back, clearing her throat awkwardly. "...I love you," she said, starting to tear up again.

Yoshiko lifted her head, her broken glass heart burning in flames at this point. She looked into You's sorrowful clear blue eyes, slow tears falling down her cheeks. The sight of it and the whole situation, combined with those words You had just said…. Yoshiko felt her lip finally starting to quiver. Without saying anything, she closed the door and locked it, turning and leaning her back against it. She bit her shaking lip to keep herself quiet and listened hard for the sound of footsteps walking away. First she heard a quiet sob, then fast footsteps leaving, going down the stairs fast. As soon as she couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, she sunk down the door, putting her head in her hands and sitting on the floor, finally allowing herself to cry. She sobbed, uncontrollably, unable to stop it.

Her whole world was gone from her life. The tears wouldn't stop, and she couldn't identify what she was feeling right now. Was this heartbreak or anger? Hate or sadness? She couldn't tell, and she didn't know if she wanted to curl up right there in front of the door and cry, or if she wanted to break things.

After sitting there for fifteen minutes, she slowly managed to get her breathing under control. She debated back and forth between her options, and finally opted for neither. Her mother would probably be home soon, and she wouldn't be too pleased to see Yoshiko crying on the floor, and would definitely not be pleased to come home to broken things. Hesitantly, Yoshiko picked herself up off the ground. The moment she did, she noticed how heavy her body felt and how tired she was. Honestly, bed seemed like the best option right now.

And she didn't plan to leave the solitude of her bed for the next week.


	4. Chapter 4

Yoshiko worked as a barista at a local coffeeshop. It was just a little side job to make money while she focused on achieving her dream. She had always wanted to be a famous actress, and she was doing okay lately with getting auditions, but she was far from famous. So for now, being a barista paid the bills.

While she was at work, she was allowed to be on her phone as long as the things she needed to do weren't ignored and customers were taken care of. So she had spent the first hour or so of work anxiously checking her phone to see if You had texted her back. Which was bad. She realized as she checked the empty screen for the billionth time that she probably needed to stop. Who knew what this was about? She couldn't get too excited or nervous. She just had to remain cool and calm and see how it played out.

Besides, even if You wanted to get back together, it's not like Yoshiko would do it. She knew it would be a bad idea, after the way they'd ended up before. It would just be dumb, right? And the Great Fallen Angel Yohane didn't make dumb decisions. ...Most of the time, that was. But it couldn't hurt to at least be on speaking terms, could it? It was so harsh to lose someone important to you like that. For a good year after they had broken up, Yohane had still been starting to text her something, wanting to tell her, and then remembering they weren't together anymore. And then she'd spend the rest of the day feeling like an idiot.

She sighed, putting her phone back into her apron pocket and opting to wipe down the countertop in front of her instead. Since when had she been such an anxious person? The only things she got this nervous over were auditions, and waiting for a call from whoever she had auditioned with. This was pure insanity to her, being so nervous waiting for a stupid text. Though she couldn't help but wonder what was taking You so long to text her back.

Her focus shifted when a customer walked up to the counter, and she forgot about her phone for a while.

—————

The morning rush finally slowed down around 11, and Yohane finally had a moment to clean up the complete hot mess that had been made during the rush. Typically, very few people came in between 11 and 2, so she'd likely have a bit of time to just relax until the next customer stepped in. Glancing at the counter to make sure nobody needed her help, she leaned back against the back counter and pulled her phone out of her apron.

Her eyebrows raised slightly when she saw she had 61 new messages. Ruby and Hanamaru excitedly blowing up their group chat about something. She opened the chat and scanned through all the unread messages. It seemed that Hanamaru had been offered a promotion at work, and they wanted to get together to celebrate. Yoshiko smiled and typed out a response, saying she'd check her schedule to make sure she was free that day.

1 message was left unopened, and she wondered for a moment who it could be from. Just before she opened it, she remembered the whole ordeal with You. She felt her heart beat particularly loud, and silently pleaded it not to be an idiot. She opened the text, nervously.

 _"Haha, that was all too familiar! You've always had a little bit of attitude, it never bothered me much. I've been doing pretty well lately, my life is going uphill. You graduated college, right? What's life like now?"_

How sad it was that they'd been so close and now they were small talking. Yohane hated small talk. Small talk was for boring people, who could only think to discuss the weather and work. It was rarely ever interesting. This situation, it was so bittersweet. Yoshiko missed very much being close with her, she missed spending every second with her. Naturally, she would never admit that. Not because she was embarrassed about it, but because she knew it would just lead to more heartbreak and more fights, probably. Exes were exes for a reason, after all. Right?

She typed out her response.

 _"Yeah, I graduated, and I'm doing well. I've got a job that isn't exactly a dream, but it pays the bills for now. I've been at this one for a year now. Did you really text me just to find out how I'm doing?"_

She sent the message and put her phone back in her apron to wait for a response. As usual, she realized too late that what she'd said probably could have come across as rude. But she just shrugged it off this time. It was You, after all. You knew her too well to think she was being rude at this time. She knew what Yohane really was like when she was rude.

After a minute or two, her phone vibrated, and she grabbed it super quick without even thinking about it. She opened it and read the new message.

 _"Not really, but I wanted to test it out and make sure you were going to answer me before I talked more. I didn't want to make a fool of myself if you were just going to ignore, you know? Anyways, I wanted to know if maybe you wanted to meet up sometime and catch up? I've really missed talking to you."_

That last addition gave Yoshiko a weird, warm feeling in her heart. This was bad. She should probably say no. She knew herself, and she knew the way her life went. Yohane was plagued with bad luck, and this would probably end badly. If she said yes, they'd meet up, and then she would fall back in love with You, and You wouldn't return the feelings. Somehow, Yoshiko would mess things up, and You would leave again. And Yoshiko didn't know if she could take that. She'd have to say no.

 _"Yeah, I'd love that. I missed talking to you too."_

She sent it before she thought about it. Damn her and her strong-willed heart! How did her heart always win the battles with her head? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Before she could even send a 'just kidding', You responded.

 _"Oh, great! I'm super excited then. Are you free on Saturday morning? I have work from 6pm Friday to 1am Saturday, but we could still meet up."_

Yohane was disappointed in herself for getting excited every time a new text came in. For a second, she even thought it was like they were still together.

This was such a bad idea.

 _"Yeah, but I want to sleep in. So I won't want to do anything until after 10am."_

Almost immediately, she got a response. How did You have time to text her back like this? Didn't she have a **real** job? Hadn't she gone to school for marine biology or some dumb thing like that?

 _"Okay! That's fine. Since I'm working till 1, I probably won't wake up until about 10. How about we meet up at 1pm? Do you still live in Uchiura or have you moved? I'm in Tokyo. Do you drive or do you take the train? It's two hours to get to Tokyo or Uchiura either way, should we meet in the middle?"_

A minute later, another text from You came through.

 _"Sorry. I'm asking too many questions. It's been too long."_

Yoshiko found herself chuckling softly. She couldn't help it. You was always so curious and cute and good at talking to people. It was a skill Yoshiko never had mastered quite the way she wanted to, but she'd come to terms with it in her last year of high school. She was doomed to be awkward for all of her life.

 _"Yeah, I have my own apartment in Uchiura, actually. I do drive, 1pm is fine, and we don't have to meet in the middle. I'll meet you in Tokyo. Where do you want to go? Shopping, or to lunch, or just wandering?"_

She glanced up, hearing the bells meaning that the door had been opened. She didn't really want to deal with a customer right now, she was busy having an important conversation. She scanned for the person who came in, and saw a vaguely familiar face walking away. She concluded it had just been someone leaving, and thus she went back to her phone just as a new text came through.

 _"How about all of them? It's great to have tons of things to do. Plus we can just walk down one street and get pretty much everything done. Tokyo's great, I love it."_

Each time a new text was read, Yohane couldn't stop smiling. She'd have to really focus to make herself maintain a straight face. She didn't want to be too excited about this. She knew it was a bad idea.

 _"Yeah, that sounds great. Okay, so Saturday at 1pm in Tokyo. Where should we meet?"_

The time flew by when she was texting You, and before she even realized it, they had spent the whole day texting back and forth. You had tried not to ask too many questions, because she said she wanted to have things to talk about on Saturday, so Yoshiko honored that. Even though, really, they would've had plenty to talk about anyways. They always had.


End file.
